Country singer Mindy McCready back home from hospital in Florida; problem unknown

Country singer McCready out of hospital in Fla.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Mindy McCready, the country singer who battled drugs and legal woes but recently declared herself clean after a stint on “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew,” was back home Tuesday from the hospital, according to her brother, after police responded to an overdose call at a Florida home.

The overdose report came at 10:38 a.m. at a North Fort Myers home, said the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. The property is owned by McCready’s mother, records showed.

Cape Coral Hospital spokeswoman Karen Krieger would not say why McCready was taken to the hospital.

“She is in good condition,” Krieger said.

In an e-mail, McCready’s publicist confirmed the singer was in the hospital, and said the diagnosis has not been confirmed.

“The family asks for your respect of their privacy and appreciates your thoughts and prayers at this time,” wrote publicist Kat Atwood.

McCready, 34, gained stardom in 1996 with a No. 1 hit, “Guys Do It All The Time,” and a double-platinum album, “Ten Thousand Angels.”

She is well-known these days for a troubled life filled with domestic abuse, drug and DUI arrests and a suicide attempt.

Her brother, Josh McCready called the reports a big misunderstanding.

“She is fine and back at home with my mother. It was by far over a huge exaggeration,” he said in an e-mailed statement.

In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with her mother and resisting arrest at her mother’s home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.

And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.

During this year’s “Celebrity Rehab 3,” McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, with Dr. Drew Pinsky — the show’s host — calling her an angel in the season finale.

On the show she said she suffered from love addiction, not substance abuse. In one of the show’s scarier moments, McCready suffered a seizure and was rushed to a hospital where scans showed brain damage.

Pinsky said he and McCready have stayed in regular contact since filming the show last fall and he said in an interview last month that the singer appeared to be doing well.

“She’s an easy person to like and to care about and we hope she does well,” Pinsky said. “So far so good as far as I can tell.”

McCready recently released a new album, “I’m Still Here,” and fought the release of a sex tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.

McCready told the syndicated TV show “Inside Edition” that she broke off her relationship with Clemens when he wouldn’t marry her. She told the news magazine they met in a karaoke bar, but their relationship didn’t turn sexual until several years later.

McCready, however, told the New York Daily News she didn’t want to marry Clemens.

“I’m Still Here” debuted at No. 71, but didn’t return her to the top of the charts. Still McCready said she felt great during an interview with The Associated Press in April in Nashville. She had a new boyfriend, music producer and musician David Wilson, and was pursuing deals for her own reality show and a new tell-all book.

“I’m happy just with the little things right now, just the smallest little thing that turns out well, I’m happy for it,” McCready said. “I’m grateful. I am so grateful to still be here, to be getting a second chance or a third or a fifth or whatever it is now.”

AP Entertainment writers Chris Talbott and Caitlin R. King contributed to this report from Nashville, Tenn.